At noon, Alex and Rufus rushed to another one of the Clifton family's office locations. They planned to hold a press conference there.
As they arrived, Alex spotted a blue car pulling away. As it passed by, a strange feeling came over him. He felt a rushing in his ears that suddenly cleared away, leaving him with a sudden, sure feeling about the car.
"Stop!" He cried. He turned quickly to watch the car go by, and realized he recognized the person sitting in the driver's seat.
He jumped out of Rufus' car and took off after the blue car as it raced down the road, waving his arms wildly.
In the car, four women were sat comfortably. They had just bought the car, and were eager to meet up with their master.
It was Callisto, Luna, Celeste, and Selene. Celeste was driving.
But suddenly, something came up by their side and tugged one of the doors open. They were so strong that they actually damaged the door, scraping and denting it in the process. Celeste barely glanced in the rear-view mirror to see who their attacker was. She just pressed on the gas and sped up more.
The car sped up, as if trying to shake him off, but Alex was determined. He used his internal force to increase his speed. To bystanders, it looked as though a blur was chasing the car.
Finally, Celeste looked in her mirror and realized who was chasing them. She slammed on the brakes, and Alex had to move quickly to avoid running headlong into the car.
"Mr. Alex!" She yelled through the window. "If you wanted us to stop, why didn't you just call? You don't have to attack the car!"
The other girls piped up too. They were all very excited about their new car.
"Don't you like the car?" Luna asked. "It's so beautiful! Or it was, anyway."
Selene added, "We came out here to surprise you!"
Callisto frowned. "It's too bad about the door."
The girls chatted away obliviously. They had only just bought the car, and all agreed that it was too bad it had started to take damage so quickly.
But Alex knew there was no time to listen. His instincts were screaming at him. He ripped the doors open and pulled them each out of the car one by one. He pushed them in the direction of the Cliftons' building, a safe distance from the car. As they ran, he shouted after them. "Run! That's an order! Don't stop!"
Celeste was the last one to get out of the car. Alex scooped her up in his arms and ran.
People who passed by this scene on the road were stunned at the sight of the beautiful girls running away from the car.
Celeste blushed and wrapped her arms around Alex's neck, tucking her face into his chest with a shy smile. It always startled her when Alex did something like this, so caring and protective.
She scolded herself a little for letting herself indulge in romantic fantasies. She knew he was dedicated to Debbie. But she also felt it was only fair she be allowed to enjoy moments like this.
Her train of thought was cut off abruptly as Alex wrapped her tighter in his arms and crouched to the ground, protecting her with his body.
"Duck!" He shouted to the others. "Everybody get down!"
Everyone around him fell to the ground just in time as the blue car exploded.
Hot air swept over them all, singing many people's hair. But luckily, no one was seriously injured.
Silence fell over the street. Everyone was shocked and unsure of what to do.
Alex got up from the ground and look back. The car was a smoking wreck.
The Moon girls all clapped their hands over their mouths, horrified. They couldn't believe they had been sitting in that same car just a minute or two before, completely oblivious to the danger they had been in.
Although each had been trained in combat, they were still very young and did not often consider themselves to be in any real peril. Now their heads were filled with horrible thoughts of what might have happened had they been caught in the explosion.
They gathered around Alex silently, deeply rattled. Celeste asked him, "How did you know? How did you know we were in danger?"
Alex frowned deeply. He shook his head, looking at each Moon maiden as if to make doubly sure that they had not been injured. He couldn't believe what a near miss that had been.
Their thoughts were very similar. Each were grateful that their first instinct after buying the car had been to find Alex as quickly as possible.
"I'll buy you a new car," he promised them with a smile. "Another blue one, if you like. Maybe with stronger doors. I thought I damaged that door a little too easily."
One by one, the girls began to laugh. They felt like the luckiest people alive.
But they still wanted to know how Alex had detected the bomb. Luna wondered aloud if he had smelled a chemical, and how they could have missed it.
Celeste shook her head. They had passed each other so quickly. It seemed impossible that he had had any time to notice anything.
"I heard it," Alex said faintly. "I heard it ticking."
The girls stared at him in wide-eyed amazement. They hadn't heard a thing.
"That seems strange," Callisto said with a frown. "Bombs don't make noise."
"A timed bomb would. And did," Alex added. The adrenaline rush was fading from his body, and he was starting to feel tired. He tried to keep his voice level and even. The last thing he wanted to do was argue after such a horrible near-death experience.
The Moon maidens all looked at each other in surprise. If Alex said that he had heard the bomb in their car, then of course they believed him. But it seemed incredible that he had managed to hear something as quiet at the ticking of a time bomb over the roar of the engine of the car.
They also didn't understand why they had been targeted for this attack.
Selene tilted her head. "When do you think it happened? Was it just installed?"